“The Toad King let us do as we wished with him.”

Mousey wasn’t sure why Lieutenant Nycht volunteered that information, but he forced a smile and nodded, the sword still in his paw.

Nycht walked over to Mousey and spoke in a low voice. “Since saving this frog’s life was your crime, ending it shall absolve your guilt. This is how you make things right.”

“Secrets don’t make friends!” Queen Felicia giggled. “Come now, pup, show me that you’re ready to join the Nocturnal Guard. Slay this frog and swear your oath to me.”

Mousey approached Sir Ranae. Under his breath he muttered, “I thought you’d been in worse situations than this?”

“How wrong I was,” said Sir Ranae. “I trust as my friend, you will make it quick?”

Mousey drew in a sharp breath. Faced with certain doom, this frog seemed unfazed. He didn’t beg or plead for his life, nor did he bargain, as Mousey would have done.

Mousey bit his lip and fought back the tears.

All he wants is a quick end...

With all eyes still upon him, Mousey raised the sword high over his head, gripping it firmly in both paws.

What could he possibly do to help his friend? Truly, this was the point of no return. If he slew this frog he would be just as wrong as the rest of the Nocturnal Patrol, but if he did not he was sure they’d execute him alongside his brave friend.

“Remember everything I taught you,” Sopher’s voice rang in Mousey’s head. “Use what you know to get you out of here.”

Mousey thought back to any memory that could get him out of this. He hadn’t yet learned to travel great distances in an instant, so going home was not an option.

He stared down into Sir Ranae’s eyes. He thought back to that day, when he’d first met this frog by the stream.

The stream!

Of course! The stream that ran near Okber, the place where he’d played so many times as a young pup. He knew it so well, and held so many beautiful memories of that place.

Mousey closed his eyes and focused on those memories.

This would be their salvation.

He heard the roar of rushing water, and when he opened his eyes a charging stream poured over the battlements of the tower and spilled over the roof, like a dam had just broken. As the bats all took off into the air in panic, and Queen Felicia fled hissing and cursing from the rushing river, Mousey used the sword to cut Sir Ranae’s bonds.

“Brace yourself!” Mousey shouted, just as the cold, fluid wall crashed into them.

At first, the waters pulled them under. Mousey didn’t know up from down, and flailed his arms frantically, not sure which direction to go. But Sir Ranae grabbed hold of him and pulled him to the surface.

The force of the stream carried them away, toward the other edge of the tower. Only then did Mousey realize how ill-thought-out his plan truly was. Once the water spilled them over the edge they would have a long way to fall.

“Hold on to me!” Sir Ranae shouted.

Mousey wrapped his arms around Ranae’s torso and held on as tightly as he could.

The water broke through the battlements on the other side of the tower, and Mousey and Sir Ranae spilled over the side. Mousey closed his eyes, terrified of the impending fall into oblivion.

But they’d stopped falling almost instantly.

Water still poured over their heads, but they did not plummet, as Mousey expected.

When he opened his eyes, he saw that Sir Ranae had caught himself on the wall of the tower, and, with great difficulty, was able to hold on in spite of the waterfall beating down on them.

Sir Ranae leapt from that spot on the wall and attached himself to a window a little further down.

Of course! Mousey had read about this! Many frogs had fingertips that could stick to smooth surfaces like suction cups.

“A mouse dares to use magic in my kingdom?” came Queen Felicia’s roar from above. “Find them! Slay them!”

Bats flew out all around the top of the tower, and their high-pitched screeches filled the air.

“Flee! They’ll find us!” Mousey squeaked, a little louder than he’d intended.

One bat turned his head to the two of them and, with sword in claw, dove at them.

Sir Ranae pushed off the wall and allowed the two of them to drop two stories before clinging to a window again.

The sudden jolt at the end of the drop caused Mousey to lose his grip, and he fell from Sir Ranae’s chest. Below him was the ground, and Mousey could do nothing but watch as it hurtled towards him.

Another sudden jolt yanked Mousey back up into the air. Something sticky and slimy around his ankle ripped him back up to Sir Ranae’s shoulder. When Mousey looked at his amphibious friend’s face, he spied the frog’s tongue slipping back into his mouth.

“Hold on as tight as you can!” Sir Ranae croaked. “Don’t be afraid to hurt me.”

Mousey nodded, climbed onto Sir Ranae’s back, and wrapped his arms around his torso again. He couldn’t lock his paws together on the other side, for they didn’t quite meet. Instead, he gripped the rope belt around Sir Ranae’s waist, and prayed it would be enough.

A bat dove at them.

Sir Ranae ducked under the bat’s stab. As the Nocturnal Patrolbeast flew past, the frog lashed out with his tongue and snatched the sword from his claw.

With a sword in one hand, Sir Ranae dropped again, but only fell one story before he gripped another window. The sudden stop wasn’t quite so jarring, and Mousey was able to hold on this time.

Another bat swooped down to attack Sir Ranae.

The frog knight parried with the sword he’d stolen, and bashed the bat on the helmet with the pommel.

The bat, disoriented by the blow, crashed into the wall, then plummeted to the ground beneath them.

Another drop brought the two of them closer to the ground.

Then another.

And another.

An arrow snapped on the wall beside them, and Mousey looked down to see a cadre of weasels with long-bows down below. They each nocked arrows and took aim at Sir Ranae and Mousey.

Sir Ranae would never be able to get them down in time. Mousey had to solve this problem himself.

He looked down at a window below them, closed his eyes, and when he opened them again the window shattered as a river poured forth from within the tower.

The waterfall crashed down on the archers below, and they scattered out of the way.

“Amazing!” croaked Sir Ranae, climbing down the wall toward the rushing water. “I didn’t know you were a wizard!”

Mousey simply nodded.

“Can you freeze the stream?” Sir Ranae asked.

Mousey closed his eyes and thought back to last winter, when he’d gone ice-skating with his brothers and sisters on the shortest day of the year. It was so cold, but Mousey thought the ice and snow were beautiful. The way the icicles hung off the tree branches, the way the frost sparkled in the sunlight, and the patterns of ice in the stream near Okber.

When he opened his eyes again, frost clung to the tower’s wall, and the stream below had turned into a frozen waterfall, with icicles hanging below.

Sir Ranae dropped down onto the frozen stream and crouched, allowing himself to slide down it on his feet.

As the two of them rode the ice downward, Mousey’s heart raced, and in a flash he remembered the time the ice proved thinner than he and his siblings had expected, and Button fell through.

No sooner had the memory wormed its way back into the forefront of his mind, then the ice crackled and popped.

Mousey yelped and flailed, terrified that the ice would shatter underneath them, but Sir Ranae held him fast until they reached the ground.

Mousey slipped off Sir Ranae’s back, and his paws met the solid ground. For the first time in months, he touched free soil.

But he had no time to celebrate just yet.

There was a bright flash of light behind him.

Followed by the deafening roar of thunder less than a second later.

Mousey clasped his paws over his ears and started to run. Sir Ranae followed.

Another bright flash, this time right in front of them. The thunderclap shook Mousey’s whole body.

“You were right!” shouted Sir Ranae, as the two of them continued to flee. “She is a terrible sorceress!”

The Queen called the storm? The young mouse found himself in a mix of awe and terror at such power.

Mousey and Sir Ranae soon reached the cover of trees, where the Queen and her minions were less likely to see them. But Mousey remembered one of his mother’s lessons: never hide under a tree in a lightning storm. They were hidden, but far from safe.

Another thunder clap, and a burning branch fell in Sir Ranae and Mousey’s path.

Sir Ranae grabbed Mousey and leapt over the flaming limb, through the pitch-black smoke.

Mousey coughed and rubbed his eyes to be rid of the tears.

“We need another river!” Sir Ranae shouted.

Another thunderclap, and a tree nearby split in half. Sir Ranae covered both his own and Mousey’s faces as splinters flew at them.

“Can you do it?” Sir Ranae asked.

Mousey nodded. He looked up at the canopy of trees, then closed his eyes and focused again.

One of the trees burst open, and a waterfall poured forth. The river ran along the forest floor, until it found Sir Ranae and Mousey. The waters caught them up and rushed them away.

More trees fell as lightning struck all around, but the branches kept the bolts from reaching the waters.

The river Mousey had conjured soon fed into another river, one that had already been there, and he and Sir Ranae swam away, letting the river take them far from Queen Felicia and her minions.